Rosacea Blog

Interesting thread on Bill Clinton's rosacea and how much better it looks:

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/rosacea-support/message/68774

Quote from Rick:

"Yeh, I agree, the difference is remarkable. I have a close-up color photograph of him from early 2000, takenwhen Hilary announced for US Senate, that shows him in a full-face flush, including the ears."

Docguide.com has some news on the upcoming Aczone (topical Dapsone) for treatment of acne vulgaris.

Quote:
"In the Phase III efficacy and safety trial reported 496 patients were enrolled. Of those, 330 were treated with 5% dapsone topical gel and 166 with a vehicle control gel. Results from this study demonstrate a significant reduction in the all lesion types (inflammatory, noninflammatory and total lesion counts) in patients using dapsone topical gel compared to the vehicle control group."

Link to the originall article:
http://www.docguide.com/news/content.nsf/news/8525697700573E1885256FAF005250A7

Definition of rhinophyma

See also:

Clinical and histological variants of rhinophyma, including nonsurgical treatment modalities.

Abstract:

Facial Plast Surg. 1998;14(4):241-53. Related Articles, Links


Clinical and histological variants of rhinophyma, including nonsurgical treatment modalities.

Jansen T, Plewig G.

Department of Dermatology, Ludwig-Maximillian University, Frauenlobstrasse 9-11, D-80337 Munich, Germany.

Phymas are slowly progressive, disfiguring disorders of the face and ears that represent the end stage of rosacea, a common centrofacial dermatosis. Phymas are probably caused by the sequelae of chronic edema and its related connective tissue and sebaceous gland hypertrophy. Rhinophyma is the commonest among them. Analogous swellings may occur on the chin (gnatophyma), forehead (metophyma), one or both ears (otophyma), and eyelids (blepharophyma). Although rhinophyma has been traditionally associated with alcoholism, there is no evidence to support this association. Four variants of rhinophyma (glandular, fibrous, fibroangiomatous, actinic) can be recognized on clinical and histological basis. The development of skin cancer, such as basal cell carcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma, in rhinophyma appears to be a matter of accidental coincidence of different diseases. Although phymas are best treated surgically, they may be a worthwhile indication for nonsurgical treatment modalities such as systemic isotretinoin. Phymas do not resolve spontaneously.

Interesting. I transcribed from here:

http://tinyurl.com/4jtyx

You may need to register.

It starts getting interesting 28:16 mins in although there may be more.

Q. "The rosacea market is potentially very large, what do doctors currently do for patients and are the current therapies adequate"

Currently the main line of therapy is to use topical anti-microbials and also oral antibiotics. Both of those types of treatments area really aimed at one of the manifestations of rosacea called "papular pustular" rosacea otherwise known as adult acne.

There is no effective treatment and therapeutic pharmaceutical for the erythema or redness of rosacea.

So, rosacea really starts with erythematic, telangiectic manifestations, that is, a redness of the facial area.

Right now there really is nothing that doctors can do to really help patients with that.

So, what SansRosacea has is kinda the holy grail of dermatology.

We have a product that will very rapidly address redness -- in this case caused by rosacea. Unlike other types of treatment for rosacea it has an effect that manifests within 15-20 minutes as opposed to 2-3 weeks so it is really right in the sweet spot of what patients are looking at with rosacea.

Q. "What is the mechanism of action for SanRosa's compound?"

Basically the flushing is due to a number of different stimuli.

Rosacea is a bit of a mystery disease because although you can link various stimuli with the effect of flushing and redness, nobody really knows why those stimuli cause flushing or redness.

I'm talking about things like spicy foods, moderate, mild intake of alcoholic beverages, intense exercise, all these things can result in flare-ups of rosacea.
So, to nip rosacea in the bud, and get it at that first stage, we are working with a product that is based on vascular dilation modulation so we're going directly after the flushing effect and that's how our product works.

[Update 29th March 2006 - latest info and links on SansRosa, click here]

This looks interesting and one to follow:

http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=122023

I posted the above link to rosacea-support a couple of weeks back.

I now find this:

http://www.bioadvance.com/home/company_pdf/sansrosa.pdf

This looks like one of the first serious attempts to treat the erythema (redness) associated with rosacea. Lots more information is needed, but at least they are trying. Will post more if / when I can get more info.

Photodynamic therapy for rhinophyma.

Some more info on Levulan PDT

Acneiform eruption due to "megadose" vitamins B6 and B12.

Abstract:

Cutis. 1991 Aug;48(2):119-20. Related Articles, Links


Acneiform eruption due to "megadose" vitamins B6 and B12.

Sherertz EF.

Department of Dermatology, Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27103.

Medications and other exogenous factors are known to be capable of exacerbating acne or precipitating acneiform eruptions. This case illustrates an eruption resembling acne rosacea that was temporally associated with daily ingestion of high-dose B vitamin supplement. The eruption failed to respond to the usual treatment regimens for rosacea, but promptly improved when use of the vitamin supplement was discontinued.